


this is halloween

by ace_corvid



Series: Halloween Countdown Ficfest 2020 [13]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily-centric (DCU), Bruce Wayne Needs a Hug, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Family Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Challenge, Minor Angst, Prompt Fic, Robins and their dad, TDC Unlucky Thirteen 2020, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but they're all fine here dw, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27314071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ace_corvid/pseuds/ace_corvid
Summary: Robins usually end up having to work Halloween night, but Bruce wishes they could just be normal kids.(5 times the Robins needed to work Halloween, and the 1 time they didn't.)
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Everyone, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne
Series: Halloween Countdown Ficfest 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978783
Comments: 25
Kudos: 183
Collections: TDC's Unlucky Thirteen





	this is halloween

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: **Halloween / Free Day**
> 
> DAY 13!! AHHH I CANT BELIEVE THAT THIS IS OVER AND THAT I MANAGED EVERY DAY  
> thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this series and enjoying it. i ended up having to rush this fic bc ive been super busy today for the obvious reasons, i really wnated it to be a lot better and a lot bigger than it is, but i hope you like it as much as ive enjoyed doing this countdown challenge. thank you again, and happy halloween!  
> kudos to the trans dc discord server, make sure to go into the collection and check out everyone elses fic, we all worked so hard and there's some absolutely amazing work!!
> 
> title: this is halloween from the nightmare before christmas

1.

“Hey B!” Dick beamed. “Are you nearly ready to go?”

He was dressed as Superman, like he'd been last year, when they'd gone trick or treating. Bruce has enjoyed it, very much so, and so had Dick, but Bruce didn't know how to tell him that this year... he couldn't. _They_ couldn't.

They'd gotten wind of the Joker planning something big for Halloween. The Joker wasn't Robin's job and never would be, but Bruce needed someone else to handle the rest of Gotham while he sorted it out. So he had to tell his son to get out of his lovingly put together Halloween costume, get into his uniform, and get to work. On Halloween. Because he had no other choice than to put this child into the line of fire.

There was going to be a special place in hell for him, Bruce just knew it.

“I can't.” Bruce sighed, kneeling down to Dick's level. “We've got a Joker emergency.”

Dick paused for a moment. “How big?”

“Big.”

“Then you need me on the ground.” Dick puffed himself up. “Don't you?”

So young, and so smart. Selfless, too. He'd be the best of them, some day. What was Bruce going to do with him?

“I wish you didn't have to.” Bruce ruffled Dick's hair.

“It's OK.” Dick punched him as close to his shoulder as the small boy could get. “Plenty of kids dress up as Robin for Halloween!”

Bruce honestly didn't know how he got so lucky with this kid.

“But only you get to be the genuine article.” Bruce said, knocking his shoulder.

Dick laughs, and it's brighter than every Jack-O-Lantern in town. For now, that has to be enough.

2.

“I'm sorry you needed to come out today, Jaylad.” Bruce said. “I know you were looking forward to tonight.”

“Well yeah, it's Halloween.” Jason leapt across a roof. “Free junk food night, basically.”

“That's one way of putting it, I suppose.” Bruce rolled his eyes fondly.

“It's a dumb holiday, but it sure is pretty.” Jason nodded down towards the decorated street below them. Pretty isn't the way Bruce would have thought to put it, but he's not wrong. There's something beautiful in it's weirdness.

Tiny little Justice league members dotted the streets, mostly little Batman and Robins. Jason pointed to one and said “I'm gonna go and say hi.”

“Be quick.” Bruce said, and Jason grinned, because he knew it was permission. He swung down to say hi and was immediately swarmed. Bruce chuckled at the sight and waited for his son to rejoin him on the roof, which he eventually did, happy as anything.

“They were all dressed as me.” He beamed with pride.

“Indeed they were.” Bruce nodded.

“I'd have dressed as a cool hero, like Wonder Woman.”

“You are a cool hero.” He argued. “But you would also make an amazing Wonder Woman.”

“You think?”

“I do.”

“Nice. It kinda sucks I didn't get to go trick or treating the first year I could afford the costume, though.” Jason joked, and Bruce's heart panged. What was he doing to these children? _His_ children? Maybe Dick _was_ better off without him in Bludhaven.

As soon as Jason caught the guilt in Bruce's face, he shook his head. “Don't. This is so much more important.”

“I wish you could have gone out tonight, though.” Bruce frowned.

“There's nowhere else I'd rather be but here.” Jason said simply.

Slowly but surely, hesitant to break the peaceful atmosphere, Bruce put his arm around his son. And with similar caution, Jason leaned it, resting his head on Bruce's shoulder.

Maybe Jason would rather be kicking Scarecrow's ass than going trick or treating. But family was what counted.

3.

Bruce really wished he didn't have to do this. But history seemed to be repeating itself with his poor Robins.

“I hate to ask, I really do.” Bruce sighed as Timothy picked up the phone. “But we could really use you out there tonight Robin. They always get rowdy on Halloween and I usually try to leave Robin out of it, but sometimes it's just to much. We've found some traces of their plots, and-”

“Sure, I'll head over to the cave now.” Tim said easily. Bruce was immediately suspicious; Tim was borderline obsessive about the job sometimes, but he was still a child, and it was still a holiday. Dick and Jason certainly hadn't grown out of it by this age.

“It's Halloween, Tim, surely you must have had plans?” Bruce asked, trying to ignore the seed of doubt that was rapidly growing in his mind.

“Nope.” Tim said, popping the P.

“Weren't you going to do something, or go trick or treating?” Bruce questioned. “This is a pretty big holiday.”

Bruce got the feeling that Tim shrugged. “I don't really care. I've never been trick or treating anyway.”

Bruce froze. Alfred doesn't, because he's unshakable like that, but Bruce knows him well enough to know that it's a very close thing.

“What do you mean?” Asked Bruce, after a pause.

“I mean I've never gone trick or treating?” Tim responded, clearly confused. Like it wasn't a big deal. Bruce lost his parents at a very young age, and Halloween during those years have nothing but blurry, orange, candy-filled memory. But what he does remember is that no matter how busy his parents were, they always took him out trick or treating. And then, so did Alfred, though Bruce didn't often feel much like it.

Something twists up in Bruce's stomach at the thought of Tim not having that. But what can he do? Tim is not his son, no matter what Bruce thinks of the Drakes minimal parenting.

He swallows down the guilt of not being able to do anything and pushes forward.

“Next year, then.” Bruce said.

“Huh?” He sounded confused.

“Next year.” Bruce clarified. “I'll take you trick or treating.”

Tim huffed. “I'm a little old.”

“No.” He replied simply. “You're not. I'll see you at the Cave in 10.”

4.

“So.” Stephanie balanced on a wall, arms out, looking at him curiously. “What do you usually do on Halloween?”

“Work.” Bruce said flatly.

“Oh so this is usual then? But you apologised when you called me up asking me to come?” Stephanie tilted her head inquisitively.

“Because I try to make it so that Robin's don't have to work Halloween. So you can be normal kids.” He explained.

“I don't think normal kids make a habit of taking up vigilantism.” She said lightly.

“I imagine they don't.”

“So maybe you should stop treating us like we _are_ normal kids.” She walked up to him and poked him in the chest. He barely felt it, but he still moved back. “And actually let us help for once. Even if that means working Halloween.”

“You should be trick or treating right now. Or going to a party with your friends.”

“Maybe I should be.” Stephanie shrugged. “But I'm not. Rest assured, if I had a problem, _you'd know about it._ ”

Bruce has never once doubted that Stephanie would tell him at length about her many problems, with him or not.

It has never been comforting like this before though.

“Let's get to it then.” She grinned and leaped off the building. Bruce swallowed the small heart attack he got at the sight of her dropping like a stone and sighed.

She's as good a Robin as any.

5.

“This is a child's holiday.” Damian hissed, absolutely outraged and dressed in a cheap, Batman Halloween costume.

“A lot of adults enjoy it too, though for different reasons, I'll admit.” Dick said, shrugging, adjusting Damian's cowl. Fabric, cloth, cowl.

Damian scowled. This was beneath him.

Dick took one look at his face. “This is not beneath you.”

“We should be _working_!”

“Nah.”

“What do you _mean_ no?” Damian spat, trying to tear the costume off while Dick grabbed his arms.

“You,” Dick began, calm as anything while Damian raged. “Are going to do what normal kids around here do on Halloween. For one night Damian. That is all I am asking of you.”

“One night too many.” Damian grimaced.

Dick sighed. “Please.”

“No.

“ _Please._ ”

“ _No._ ”

“For me?”

Damian paused at that, and then looked around as if searching for witnesses. If Dick didn't know any better, he'd have said Damian was blushing.

“Fine.” Damian acquiesced. “For you.”

Just as Dick was about to thank Damian, alarm bells began to ring out. The _really bad_ kind. The all hands on deck kind. Up to and including Robin kind.

Damian smirked, tore off the cloth cowl, and threw it to the floor. Dick honestly didn't know what else he expected.

+1.

They all sat around, nearly in complete silence. Disbelief lingered in the air.

“Scarecrow?” Tim asked incredulously.

“Arkham.” Dick replied looking just as surprised.

“Joker?” Jason asked, trepidation clear in his rough voice.

“Arkham.” Steph said, like she didn't quite believe it, which was fair. Arkham was essentially a revolving door.

“Harley?” Babs offered from her chair.

“Vacation with Poison Ivy in the Bahamas.” Damian said, eyes wide.

“Killer Moth, Firefly, Manbat?” Dick shot out.

“All accounted for and none issues.” Bruce gestured to the screen. It was showing what it had been showing for the entire time.

Not a single Rogue could attack tonight. It was _Halloween_. That was basically _unheard_ of. It was downright bizarre. All of the Robins looked perplexed, like this was incomprehensible. It basically was.

“We have the night free.” Tim blinked.

“Yeah.” Dick pushed his hair back. “But one of them has to try something right?”

“We have a live camera feed on all of them.” Jason snarked. “And even if they got out somehow, they wouldn't have time or resources to be a real threat before Halloween finished. Halloween is... free.”

“Crime in Gotham won't stop.” Stephanie noted, and she definitely wasn't wrong.

“But that's something that I can handle on my own.” Bruce's voice rang out, and all the the Robins head's snapped to look at him in unison.

“If we can be out there helping, we should be.” Damian immediately argued.

“No.” Bruce said softly- not the harsh gravel tone Batman usually used. “Please. Just one Halloween where my children have some mindless fun.”

Everyone sat still, a little shocked. Then, slowly Stephanie stood up. Bruce did not doubt for a moment that she remembered the conversation they had had the one Halloween she was Robin. He didn't doubt they all remembered discussing this.

Stephanie eyed him, and then sighed. “We could have a movie night?”

It went quiet again for just a moment.

“I've never seen the Nightmare before Christmas.” Tim said quietly.

Stephanie pointed at him angrily. “Movie marathon. _Now._ ”

“Sounds good to me.” Dick smiled. Jason looked disgusted, but Bruce figured that was more because Tim had never seen the Nightmare before Christmas than not wanting to watch movies with his siblings.

“Hocus Pocus after.” Stephanie declared.

“Then Halloween Town two.” Damian added while pretty much everyone stared in shock.

“Doesn't it make more sense to watch the first?” Bruce asked, bemused.

“It would, if the second weren't far more superior.” Damian argued, and Bruce tried not to smile. Damian had come so far- from arguing about bloodlines to bad Disney Channel original movies.

“Let's go then Robin!” Steph winked, and dragged Tim up from his chair.

“What did you usually watch on Halloween then?” She asked him.

Tim rolled his eyes. “I was young, stupid and utterly unsupervised. I watched horror movies, obviously.”

“That explains so much about your personality.” Jason swung an arm around him as they all walked to the exit.

“Yeah, I got Dick to watch some with me the first year I became Robin and he cried.” Tim stated. That was true, actually, Bruce remembered.

“Shut up, traitor.” Dick gasped, but he was laughing.

Watching his children leave the cave on Halloween, Bruce couldn't help but smile. Finally, his kids could just be kids, for at least one night. He didn't even mind patrolling alone.

He was sure, at the very least, missing the company was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween all!! enjoy your night!!
> 
> you can find me at:  
> Tumblr: ace-corvid.tumblr.com  
> Twitter: twitter.com/ace_corvid  
> come yell at me!
> 
> thank you so much for reading, see you next time! And if you enjoyed this, a comment would really make my day!


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